I'm not a good photographer by any means, but I am prolific!!! This boy knows how to push a button!! I don't write particularly well either, so form no expectations in that arena!!

Jaxwife: Do you really need another photo of your motorcycle?
Jax: What do you think? You are the one who called me obsessed.

In about .5 hours, I am beginning a 7500 mile ride. This part should be in ride reports, but the Western North American Continental Divide has been done definitively by Col. Cannonshot and others..... Soooooo I'll just use this ride to bust out this mediocre thread!!

I've had a number of inquires about my gear, bike, cameras, gps farkles etc... so I'm going to update this first post with all that stuff.

Current JackShit:

Cameras:
Over the years i have had a mess of cameras, and I am tough on cameras.... They often commit suicide rather than be abused by me ever again.
I have used several Canon slrs and pas(point and shoot) cameras. Currently I use a Canon (sx230hs) pas. It has been a good camera and lasted longer than any other Canon pas, although there are times when it fails completely to take pictures. It has a problem with the plastic lens door opening all the way and it no longer will zoom, which SUX because the 14X optical zoom was a selling point.
I also have a Nikon coolpix s3100 pas that has outlasted ANY pas camera that I have owned. I've had that for 18 months!!!! It doesn't function properly either... I broke the LCD a few days after i got it so I can't change the settings or preview a shot...... I am lucky as shizzle that the setting it was on when I busted the lcd is a good sorta universal auto setting. For the CDR ride I took JaxWifes S3100 which functions perfectly (because she is not tough on stuff) .
I use her Nikon D40x when i get a chance, it's a wonderful camera, but I'm afraid I would ruin an slr within 30 seconds of owning one.
Cameras past, mostly Canon pas, but I've had a few others. Olympus, Kodak, Sony ... all dead or living with a nice person who found them after they fell off my bike (never to be found by me) :ddog

Riding Gear:
I'm a bit of a gear junkie with strange tastes for an "ADV rider"Boots:
Minimal: Danner Rainforest insulated GTX, I always feel vulnerable, but I feel especially vulnerable in my Danners. The only reason I use these anymore is because my MX boots don't have enough feel to use the brake and gear levers properly on the Tiger. (i'm working on that)
Preferred: Motocross boots. Presently using Astars Tech3s (2 pair) one perfed for summer and one for colder riding. Goretex socks for waterproofing. Fleece, neoprene and technical material socks for warmth. Jacket:
I have 5 Jackets.... hehehehh see-junkie.
My favorite is a Fieldsheer mesh. "Old crusty" Used in the heat of summer. ( I feel pretty vulnerable in this jacket although it has some armor) I almost always wear my EVS Ballistic pressure suit under the mesh hard CE protection for chest, spine, shoulders, elbows with a kidney belt. They complement each other nicely. Mesh for some abrasion resistance and the EVS for impact.
Speed and Strength 'hell and back' for the rest of the year. Pants:
Here is where I go off the farm.... or on the farm lol :duh
I prefer leather pants.
Tourmaster Apex track pants perfed for Summer (3 season)
Tourmaster Decker for colder riding.
Bass Pro goretex bibs for summer rain / cold protection that I wear outside the leathers.
Klim Klimate insulated goretex bib for winter cold wind moisture protection, again worn with the leathers inside. Rain gear:
I usually go for the cheap off the shelf jackets that stow easily and are not painful (economy wise) to replace. Gloves:
Summer: AStars Sp-X
Mid cold: Astars Drystar
coldern hell: Klim InversionHelmets:
Summer: Arai XD3 "ol stinky" :)
Winter: Scorpion 900

Motorcycles:
05 BMW F650GS thumper
09 Triumph Tiger 1050 triple

Tires:
I have 2 sets of rims for my 650. 17" rear, 19"front.
The road wheels have Continental Trail Attacks. Don't let the name fool you. These are road tires. Peg scraping good.
The dirt rims have a Continental TKC80 on the front and a Michelin T63 rear.

El Tigre has Michelin 17"x17" P3s front and rear. This tire sticks.

Farkles:
650:
Custom seat by JAX I took a Dakar High added some awesome foam I found in a dumpster and put a new piece of vinyl on top.
Ermax windshield, customized by JAX.... I ziptied an old shield to the top to get rid of the last little bit of buffeting. How KLR of me
SWmotech crash bars.
Cold air intake faker.... :)
Progressive springs in the OEM forks. (someday I'll do the YZ fork mod)
cheap accordion fork boots
Ohlins shock.
Triumph Tiger OEM tank bag
TCI top/pannier rack....sweet!!
Cortech soft pannier bags.
Bar risers
Custom by JAX hand guards. I used a piece of aluminum rubrail from a boat swim platform for the support and 5$ used polaris quad plastics. OH SO KLR
Two Brothers Titanium slip on can.
4x tractor supply tool tubes.
Bicycle bar end with a RAM gps mount ziptied to it.

My gs (Gucci KLR) has taken me a lot of places. It is a great middle of the field dual sport.
It chows on the road and gravel miles, gets great gas mileage, and is not too hard to work on.
Not a dirt bike and not a road bike. A true 50/50.

A mess of my buddies will be familiar with this road off 33.
NFW on El Tigre..... No Fucking Way.. Road has 10,000 baby heads LOL, I know caus I hit every one of them on my 650

looks innocent enough

I started the day riding with Skyclad, 6 and a couple others. Just as we starte up the mountain west of Harrisonburg VA on rt33 Sky's Uly decided it was sick of sticking to the road and tumbled off the berm in a spectacular fashon.... Despite tumbling head over ass, Sky was not injured, and barely shaken (badass that he is), but his beloved Uly would not survive.

After this incident everybody went their different ways. I was only by myself for about 20 minutes when I came upon this group of BWDR, Del Douches and PA peckers...
Friends!!! It was later this day that I found out how good friends can be!!!
Beantop, Stirby, Eddie Bolted, Hack....

Now infamous Smoke Hole Rd.

Last known photo of my right shoulder before its demise.:huh
Just part of my plan to bionicize all the joints in my body. By now, I'm sure I'm close to 1/6 of the way to becoming the Six Million Dollar Man.....

Tell me the sky doesn't look like water...
I posted this originally under the influence...

This meadow was right next to a 200 degree turn at the end of Smoke hole.

Beantop and Eddie uh..... bolted! We were gonna catch up to them later.

I was leading Hack and Stirby at a whopping 20 mph... paying attention to everything except riding my bike (dumbass move)...
I went into the 200* too soon.... Honestly just not paying fucking attention. When I realized that an oncoming car would take me out, I over corrected and glanced my front end off a guardrail. I wasn't going very fast at all...
I was stuck between the bike and the guard rail in this slow motion wrasslin match that my right shoulder gave its life for.
Hack and Stirby watched in horror, then ran to my aid.
This is where good people show their metal.
Hack helped me get the bike up and tried to get me to realize the severity of my situation.... I was in complete macho denial and wanted to do nothing but get my bike back on the road and go back to the BWDR compound. I didn't know that my shoulder was out of the socket until later, all I knew was that I couldn't move my arm... Like the dumbass that I am, I kept trying to put my hand on the throttle which hurt like a mother...."maybe it won't hurt this time---OUCH, maybe it won't hurt this time---OUCH... ad nauseum. :ddog
Hack had already waved down a nice couple in a truck to try and convince me that I really didn't need to be riding the bike and that I should go to the hospital... I continued to be surly and stupid for almost a half hour... Then Hack's gentle persuasion sunk in enough to take a ride to the hospital from the nice couple. (who had waited at least 15 minutes for me to come to my senses ) I was getting shocky and in level 9 pain...
I was super lucky (for several reasons) to have my friends there, the nearest hospital was in Petersburg WV just a few miles down the road.

Hack rode my bike to the hospital, it was a little scratched up and took a ding to the right front fork that was a little leaky.
Stirby stayed in the emergency room waiting room with me while Hack went 90 miles back to BWDR to rally the troops to come and save my ass....all in all she waited over 8 hours!!! I'll NEVER forget the kindness and loyalty Stirby.
Hack wasn't feeling well, so my friends WayneJ and VA Commuter drove Bloochdog's truck back the 90 miles to get me, my bike and Stirby.
I think Wayne has a flattering photo of me leaving the emergency room... Post away Wayne, if you are lurking.
Stirby gave up her entire afternoon and evening. Hack dealt with my pissed off and in pain ass perfectly. Wayne and VAC gave up their Saturday night festivities to drive 180 miles to save my ass....Then here is the kicker.. Hack rode my bike from Elkton VA back to Baltimore and Stirby drove me back in their truck.....
Nobody should wonder why I'm always saying I am one of the luckiest human beings ever born!!!! This story points it out wonderfully.

Thanks again Hack, love ya man.
Thanks again Stirby, you are the best.
Thanks again VAC and Wayne!!
Thanks Blooch and Banshee for loaning your truck and for putting my sad ass in a bed in the house for the night.

The shoulder hung out for 4 days until I had surgery. These were interesting days.

6 weeks later I was riding JaxWife's Honda Metropolitan at the beach.. Photos to follow.

8 months later I was pulling into a campground outside Grants NM.

This is all that happened to the bike..I had owned it for 4 days and already started the JackIzing....

A mess of my buddies will be familiar with this road off 33.
NFW on El Tigre..... No Fucking Way.. Road has 10,000 baby heads LOL, I know caus I hit every one of them on my 650

Click to expand...

Dunkle Hollow, right? The first time I rode that area I came in the back way through Moyer's Gap for my first "unofficial" Cat Herders gathering. Coming down the hill into DH in fading light on the 800 was definitely a, um, highlight of the trip.

I think Wayne has a flattering photo of me leaving the emergency room... Post away Wayne, if you are lurking.

Click to expand...

Here ya go.

We went straight to Mickey D's after leaving the ER. Jack needed a fish sammy fix.

While headed south on US-220 towards Franklin, I asked him if he was OK and said I hoped no deer jumped out in front of us(it was around midnight by this time). He said he was fine and was glad I was missing all the other shit that was jumping out in front of us. He was feeling no pain.

We went straight to Mickey D's after leaving the ER. Jack needed a fish sammy fix.

While headed south on US-220 towards Franklin, I asked him if he was OK and said I hoped no deer jumped out in front of us(it was around midnight by this time). He said he was fine and was glad I was missing all the other shit that was jumping out in front of us. He was feeling no pain.

Click to expand...

I have that same arm brace, cept mine has a white racing stripe that goes over the shoulder.

While headed south on US-220 towards Franklin, I asked him if he was OK and said I hoped no deer jumped out in front of us(it was around midnight by this time). He said he was fine and was glad I was missing all the other shit that was jumping out in front of us. He was feeling no pain.

Click to expand...

I had understandably forgotten the thingies that kept jumping out from the bushes.
I'm still in your debt Sir.